By the 26th the party had reached a height of 6000 ft., and by the end of the month the elevation was 7930 ft. Hitherto they had worn Canadian snow-shoes, but on September 2nd it was found that ski could be used, even when dragging the sledges, and the national mode of progression was gladly adopted for the remaining nineteen days. The explorers were surprised at the great difference between the temperature of day and night on this lofty plateau in September. The thermometer showed -4° in the day, and -40° Fahr. at night. Furious gales of wind were frequent. The summit was 8250 ft. above the sea, and from September 17th there was a pronounced fall to the westward. Sail was now set on the sledges, portions of the tent being used for that purpose. This day a snow bunting was seen. The crevasses and fissures again began to appear, and on the 20th the summits of the western Greenland mountains were in sight. The _sermik suak_ or inland ice thus proved to be a vast extent of smooth level snow with a margin of broken and fissured ice. The head of the Ameralik-fjord was at length reached after 40 days on the inland ice. The explorers were still sixty miles from the Danish settlement of Godthaab, and it was decided that while Nansen and Sverdrup constructed a boat and went down the fjord the rest should proceed by land. The framework of the boat consisted of two bamboos and a ski staff. The difficulty was the ribs, which were made of the branches of the dwarf willows growing on the banks of the fjord, and the canvas covering them entailed much labour in sewing with a sailmaker’s needle as they were without a “palm.” The oars were bamboos with forked willow-branches with canvas stretched across. It was a fairly good boat, and only required baling every ten minutes. After a great feast on cranberries the two explorers started and managed to make their way in her to Godthaab. The others also arrived safely, and all were very hospitably received for the winter, returning to Norway in the following year.